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Making music at the local library

The Wapakoneta Library kept on rockin' Monday morning, as a quartet of Lima Symphony Orchestra members stopped by to give kids a fun, up close look at the sounds of the symphony.

Wapakoneta, along with the New Bremen and Minster branches of the Auglaize County Libraries, welcomed the LSO for Story Time, providing musical accompaniment for some of the kids' favorite story books.

Sara Chongson, Marketing and Education Coordinator for the LSO read stories while musicians Michael Houff, Maureen Case, Sarah Longbreak, and Taylor Stobinski played songs along with the books, or classical pieces that mirrored the book's subject.

The interactive concerts were a part of a new effort by the LSO to reach out into surrounding areas, made possible by a $10,000 Challenge America: Arts Engagement in American Communities Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

"We do four children's programs each year in Lima and we're able to reach a great amount of kids," Chongson said, "but there are so many places, like the rural communities close to Lima that maybe the kids don't get access or it isn't convenient for them to come."

Partnering up with the libraries was a perfect match, especially given the theme of this year's Summer Reading Program.

"I feel like we need to...

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